White doing wonders for Brumbies
23 Apr 2012
MARK KEOHANE, in his weekly Business Day column, says Jake White deserves credit for the Brumbies’ dramatic turnaround in fortunes.
In many respects it was the perfect rugby result. At least it was for me: the Bulls beat the Brumbies and 2007 World Cup-winning Springbok coach Jake White, now coach of the Brumbies, claimed the moral victory as his beaten team outscored the winners five tries to two.
At no stage did the Bulls ever look like losing a match in which the Brumbies scored 21 points in the last 10 minutes, 14 of which came in the last three minutes. So don’t get too carried away with the analysis. The home team performance has to be condemned for how disjointed it was, but the Bulls also resembled a side in desperate need of a week off.
I don’t subscribe to scorelines flattering any team because the game is played over 80 minutes and what counts is the reading at the end of that 80.
No team was flattered by the final result. I’d suggest both got a reward for the 80 minutes, even if the Bulls were gifted five points through referee Marius Jonker’s peculiar (read diabolical) interpretation of when a ball is knocked backwards and not forwards.
The match highlighted that the Bulls, after eight successive weekends of action, were playing on instinct in the last 20 minutes, and confirmed White’s standing as a fine rugby coach with the ability to make the ordinary glow.
White’s coaching has never been complicated — and that has been the primary reason for his success. Fitness, conditioning, physicality, discipline and a good goal-kicker are elements White searches for in any squad. The physicality, fitness and match conditioning of the Brumbies were not debatable, but the lack of discipline at the breakdown and the inaccurate Brumbies’ goal-kicking would have disappointed White, who couldn’t convert the goal-kicks or determine the action of his players in contact from the coach’s box.
White would have believed the Brumbies could win, but currently they are not good enough to beat a side of the Bulls’ quality, even on a night when the Bulls always seemed to do only enough to stay two scores ahead.
The improvement in the Brumbies from a year ago has been colossal and it is down to White. Even those who don’t enjoy White can’t deny the obvious. The two late Brumbies tries were reward for a team that scramble on defence, are not afraid to have a go on attack, and are clearly among the fittest in the competition.
But they are a limited bunch and I see no reason why the Lions won’t beat them at Ellis Park. Yep, I am tipping the Lions to finally give their loyalists reason to cheer.
Of the South African teams, the Bulls produced the worst performance. Yes, I thought they were poorer in victory than in defeat against the Blues.
The Sharks were brave and honest but in the end not good enough to beat the improving Chiefs, and the Stormers’ win in Brisbane was among their best of the year.
To win in Brisbane without Schalk Burger, Jean de Villiers and Andries Bekker is an achievement, but what impressed me most was the manner of victory and the leadership in the team. Duane Vermeulen, a world-class loose-forward, is effectively the fourth-choice captain but he showed the maturity of a bloke who leads a team every weekend.
The Stormers’ composure was the stand-out feature and the defence remains the strongest characteristic of a side that relies on discipline, physicality and little risk for results. It has worked for them in the first half of the tournament but, as we have witnessed in the past two seasons, there is no guarantee that it will translate into them winning the competition.
I dislike the structure of the tournament because it won’t necessarily reward the best teams. Take the Crusaders as an example. They are starting to build to a peak but just when they should be in the play-off stage, most of their players will be involved in a three-Test All Blacks series against the Irish. Ditto the stars of the Stormers and Bulls when England play three Tests in SA in June.
All the momentum that is being built now will be halted with the introduction of the month-long Test season, after which the players have to return to their franchises and attempt to build another peak in July.
It is unrealistic to expect players to peak for the Test season and be at a similar level in Super Rugby six weeks later.
No coach could be bothered to make it an issue because it is the reality of this season’s competition, but in its current guise, the tournament will never be a true reflection of who is the best, especially when the best don’t always play the best in the league stages.
224 Comments
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23 Apr 2012, 18:45 pm
@Brigadier Van Zyl(Brigadier Van Zyl)-15: Absolutely.
It got worse, with that thug Masaga’s tackle on Mvovo. Knocking Mvovo and himself out in the proccess. NO red card not even a white card? Not even a penalty? How can he let blatant thuggery like that get away? Have no respect any longer for these kiwi refs.
These Islanders that play in the kiwi sides that want to play like thugs should be treated as such. Ban the bloody lot of them for a long, long time. We need to get that sort of thuggery out of rugby. Same as the Samoans thuggery against our Boks in our pool game in the wc went mostly unnoticed. Utter disgraceful
23 Apr 2012, 19:04 pm
It’s a joke that after the huggery on the field, the best they can come up with is the racism card. Didn’t even get it right, the term comes from the cocnut shy at the fun fair, where you throw things at coconuts on sticks, and if you knock it off you get the coconut.I suppose if you have low self esteem and a chronic victim mentality, you’ll find offense easily.
23 Apr 2012, 19:04 pm
@Puma, let them play in their own conference – PI’s and Samoans! No Sa teams to face them. Oh wait… that has happened in the past
23 Apr 2012, 19:13 pm
@Puma(Puma)-201:
There was nothing to stop the Sharks from citing him within 4 hours, it didn’t take longer than a minute to see at slo-mo what has happened
Makes one thinking? and where was the ANZAR citing Commish? must be he could see nothing wrong with it either?
23 Apr 2012, 19:34 pm
Calling kiwi thuggery what it is never deserves apology imo.
Lol how blatant was the crossing for the chiefs try haha.
The chiefs lock loitered offside the entire game obstructing defenders but alberts sorted one kiwi out properly lmao! The oke was battling to stand after willem put him down.
It was beautiful.
23 Apr 2012, 21:31 pm
@Dawn(Dawn)-188:
Lincoln in New Zealand.
I know a Kiwi sheep farmer in the UK who used to play rugby with Ritchie’s Dad…..!
I think Ritchie might know a thing or two about sheep!
23 Apr 2012, 21:33 pm
It’s a contact sport ladies & gents, tackle was brutally hard but imo not dirty
23 Apr 2012, 21:35 pm
Bulls had this game won – dunno why everyones getting so upset – they too powerful at home fir virtually all teams – look at their win vs crusaders last week. The bulls away will not be good tho – they don’t have bakkies, gurthro and danie anymore and with greyling out – lig in die broek.
23 Apr 2012, 21:39 pm
bulls were pathetic.. if they gonna play like that from here on out they don’t stand a chance in the business end of the comp.
gotta change their modus operandi quick
23 Apr 2012, 21:54 pm
Read somewhere that there were originally no tries in rugby, only points from kicks. Don’t know if it’s true, but hell I wish we would create more tries
23 Apr 2012, 21:56 pm
Bulls just play that musiek at loftus and they beat anyone …
23 Apr 2012, 23:14 pm
Hey,hey guys, can we all just,sort of like get on man,Earths just a big space ship man,and like we should all just chill and enjoy the ride.”We’ve got this gift of love, but love is like a precious plant. You can’t just accept it and leave it in the cupboard or just think it’s going to get on by itself. You’ve got to keep on watering it. You’ve got to really look after it and nurture it. “man
Saffies,kiwis and Aussies are all united in the big oval ball of love..let’s all cuddle man as we spin through space and enjoy the gift of rugby and all the awesome emotions it brings us
23 Apr 2012, 23:32 pm
According to the NZ Herald, this is the AB Form XV:
15 – Andre Taylor
14 – Tim Nanai-Williams
13 – Richard Kahui
12 – Sonny Bill Williams
11 – Hosea Gear
10 – Aaron Cruden
9 – Aaron Smith
8 – Kieran Read
7 – Tanerau Latimer
6 – Adam Thomson
5 – Brodie Retallick
4 – Sam Whitelock
3 – Charlie Faumuina
2 – Andrew Hore
1 – Tony Woodcock
24 Apr 2012, 00:54 am
@Slappes(Slappes)-203: Samoans ARE by definition PI’s pilgrim. Where does your map show Samoa?
24 Apr 2012, 00:58 am
@nikoli(nikoli)-210: You got one point from dotting down behind the “try-line” and that earned you the right to “try” to kick a “conversion” — worth two points — to bring the score tally to three. (A drop-kick used to count four points and a penalty counted three. But you’re right — it was orginally a kicker’s game rather than a runner’s one.)
24 Apr 2012, 01:46 am
@DAS(DAS)-213:
90% agree with that.
Latimer probably not. Charlie Faumuina will play for Abs this year. He plays both sides well without being destructive scrummager.
24 Apr 2012, 01:49 am
its still disgrace Duane Vermeulen has not being cap a Bok.
Was at his peak few years back for OVS. Consistently more effective then Spies IMO
24 Apr 2012, 01:59 am
@greatest13gerber(greatest13gerber)-216: Agree re: Latimer, assuming McCaw is ready to go. Matt Todd the backup, Sam Cane the future?
Re: Faumuina, not sure. I don’t see the coaches going away from preferring Ben Franks in the bench prop role/play both sides of scrum.
24 Apr 2012, 07:52 am
Now jus imagine what White would have done for the Lions…
To all those Jake white naysayers – suck it!!
I hope he goes on to embarrass the hell out of SARU and the people who backstabbed him.
24 Apr 2012, 09:46 am
Who voted for Pierre Spies to be the next Bok captain! 8% nogal.
24 Apr 2012, 10:08 am
@stew(stew)-180: I love Loey. Straight talker. No bullshit.
24 Apr 2012, 14:16 pm
@Tacitus(Deucalion)-28:
Jake doing well is not surprising to me. Been standing up for him against all the rugby blind people for years.
Yes he shoots his mouth off, but he used it to really put pressure on the Aussie scrum have in the day. Never was teh Aussie scrum under so much pressure than when Jake started to point out how they cheated. Next thing their scrum was dead and never really to return again until RObinson.
ANd he is right, Pretoria doesn;t like him on the whole.
Let’s see if you still love HM after 4 years.
24 Apr 2012, 14:19 pm
@cab(cab)-208:
Agree, the Bulls were always going to win – at home with greater overall power.
But the Brumbies are fitter, quicker but lack some physicallity at the breakdown.
Their backline on counter attack is amazing.
24 Apr 2012, 20:27 pm
@Gunther…..lololol those Stormer braai’s you attend sound very dodgy, last time I heard guys discussing different olive oils was at a dinner about 2 years ago, the one guy was a transvestite with his partner and a transgender person. We got bored and everyone proceeded to get totally smashed and only then did it become interesting.
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